Malawi: Registration for Elections gets off to a slow start, 3/18/99

JOHANNESBURG, 17 March (IRIN) - Registration of Malawi's
five million potential voters got off to a slow start
on Tuesday as administrative glitches hampered the
process.

A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission told IRIN
on Wednesday that there were 3,700 registration points
in Malawi, but that at the moment only 1,000 were operating.
He said this was largely because there were only 1,000
cameras available to take photographs for the registration
cards that voters needed .

He said this meant that the registration exercise would
be a staggered process, but the Commission was hoping
for additional cameras early next week which would
allow for more registration points to be opened.

The spokesperson said that at this stage they were looking
at 25 May as the definite election date, unless something
were to happen that would necessitate a change in the
date. The polling date had initially been set for 18
May, but was postponed after a delay in the registration
process.